New Mexico Anglers Wrongly Kept from Public Waters by State Game Commission

New Mexico Anglers Wrongly Kept from Public Waters by State Game Commission

What happens when a state game commission blatantly works against the rights of sportsmen and women who help fund it?
Check it out:

Let’s look to New Mexico where another question is being asked:
May a private landowner exclude others from fishing in a public stream that flows across the landowner’s property?

And now, the answer:
No. A private landowner cannot prevent persons from fishing a public stream that flows across the landowner’s property, provided the public stream is accessible without trespass privately owned adjacent lands.

It is an answer so clear and free from ambiguity that it’s hard to believe it was written by attorney.

But it was. In fact, it was written by an attorney named Gary K. King, who happens to be the Attorney General for the State of New Mexico.

And this opinion has big-time meaning for anglers in the Land of Enchantment.

“We were pretty shocked by the opinion. It was very unexpected,” said Joel Gay, Communications Director with the New Mexico Wildlife Federation. “But what was just as surprising is the fact that the opinion was formed based on a Supreme Court ruling from 1945. That’s more than 70 years ago. So why have we not been following this law? Why has our Fish and Game Commission established regulations that make it illegal for anglers to fish those rivers and streams that cross private lands?”